| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| Which display technology has the longest life? |
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| SiliconWizard:
We need to know whether we're talking about operating life or storage life. I guess a big factor would be storage conditions. LCD displays will tend to age pretty badly if they are stored in hot environments, subjected to high levels of moisture, exposed to sunlight, even indirectly... Another key factor for those connected with rubber (elastomeric connectors): those connectors will also age and eventually develop bad contacts. That's almost inevitable. LEDs will be a little more forgiving. But OTOH, they have a limited operating life (usually in the order of a few thousand hours), beyond which they'll be dimmer and dimmer. |
| alank2:
Both really, but I'd say prioritize storage life over operating life. I'm fascinated with the idea of making something and have it still work 30-50 years later. I'm sure the idea goes way past displays into a lot of other topics like no electrolytic caps, etc. |
| Gyro:
I mentioned the question of whether it was a one-off or production situation? It sounds like a one-off. In that case, make yourself a well packed spares kit of everything (including most of the silicon) which will have gone obsolete in 30-50 years. Actually , that's probably pretty much everything. I said that the HD44780 had already survived for decades - your problem now is stuff that has already served its term, probably most things through hole in that sort of timespan. P.S. That said, I've got test gear that's 50 years old that is still running on orignal Panaplex displays and original (healthy) electrolyics. It just goes to show. |
| texaspyro:
--- Quote from: alank2 on August 09, 2019, 07:06:28 pm ---I'm fascinated with the idea of making something and have it still work 30-50 years later. I'm sure the idea goes way past displays into a lot of other topics like no electrolytic caps, etc. --- End quote --- Around 1972 I built an LED alarm clock using PCBs and a National Semiconductor clock chip sold by Radio Shack. The clock chips were rejects from NS that had some bug in them. I used what was then unheard of green 7-segment displays. The clock has been running 24/7/365.25 for close to 50 years. Around 5 years ago it stopped working... I thought it was the clock chip (I had a replacement), but it turned out to be a bad transistor on the display board. The LEDs are around half their original brightness... I've been thinking about replacing them, but my current alarm clock is a Raspberry Pi, 800x480 touchscreen, SIRF GPS module, running Lady Heather... I hate waking up more than a millisecond early. |
| David Hess:
--- Quote from: texaspyro on August 10, 2019, 02:51:28 am --- --- Quote from: alank2 on August 09, 2019, 07:06:28 pm ---I'm fascinated with the idea of making something and have it still work 30-50 years later. I'm sure the idea goes way past displays into a lot of other topics like no electrolytic caps, etc. --- End quote --- Around 1972 I built an LED alarm clock using PCBs and a National Semiconductor clock chip sold by Radio Shack. The clock chips were rejects from NS that had some bug in them. I used what was then unheard of green 7-segment displays. The clock has been running 24/7/365.25 for close to 50 years. Around 5 years ago it stopped working... I thought it was the clock chip (I had a replacement), but it turned out to be a bad transistor on the display board. --- End quote --- I have several test instruments from the early 1970s with LED displays and the failures have all been in logic ICs but *not* the LED drivers themselves. |
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